Serena Williams: Tennis star’s legacy extends beyond wins

A few days earlier than Serena Williams claimed the twenty second of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon in 2016, she was requested what she makes of it when folks confer with her as one in every of historical past’s best feminine athletes.

Her reply: She prefers being characterised as “one of many best athletes of all time.”

That one, temporary response from Williams stated quite a bit — about her one-of-a-kind expertise with a racket in hand, about her standing as an icon, about her willingness to face up for herself, about why ladies’s sports activities shouldn’t be considered any in another way than males’s sports activities.

That every one got here to thoughts once more Tuesday, when Williams indicated she is getting ready to stroll away from her skilled tennis profession as the beginning of the U.S. Open approaches on Aug. 29 and her forty first birthday approaches subsequent month.

Sure, with shouts of “Come on!” marking the journey, she’s received probably the most main singles championships within the skilled period of tennis, which started in 1968; greater than the 22 for Steffi Graf or Rafael Nadal, greater than the 21 for Novak Djokovic, greater than the 20 for Roger Federer, greater than the 18 for Chris Evert or Martina Navratilova, greater than anybody else. And, sure, Williams received a complete of 73 tour-level singles titles and spent greater than six years’ price of weeks ranked No. 1. And he or she mixed along with her older sister Venus to say 14 Grand Slam ladies’s doubles titles. After which there are the 4 Olympic gold medals. And so forth. And so forth.

Nonetheless, mere numbers cannot seize the whole lot Williams has represented throughout a distinguished profession that started when she was a teen within the Nineteen Nineties and is exceptional for not simply the successes but in addition the longevity, together with a report 10 main championships after turning 30.

“She’s lasted longer than most, if not all, feminine tennis professionals. She’s transcended tennis and change into a frontrunner on many vital cultural, social and gender points. She has lived a rare life,” Evert wrote in a textual content message to The Related Press, “and can undoubtedly proceed to crash the glass ceiling sooner or later.”

Certainly, what Williams did with no racket in her hand is slightly noteworthy, and extends previous the thousands and thousands in endorsement offers; the flirtations with performing; the curiosity in vogue design and penchant for bringing the catwalk to the courtroom with physique fits and knee-high boots and no matter else she determined to strive; the superstar and place in popular culture; and, most just lately, the work as a enterprise capitalist (“Seventy-eight % of our portfolio occurs to be corporations began by ladies and folks of color, as a result of that’s who we’re,” Williams stated).

“You will need to take a step again and take into consideration the whole lot that Serena has dropped at our sport and what she has achieved each on and off the courtroom,” stated Steve Simon, the top of the WTA ladies’s tennis tour. “She is without doubt one of the best champions, an entrepreneur, a mom, an investor in ladies’s enterprise ventures and an inspiration to ladies and women the world over.”

Williams spoke out about being Black in her sport — she was the primary to win a Grand Slam event since Althea Gibson within the Fifties — and in her nation. She stayed away from a event in California for years after she and her father heard racist taunts there. She talked about being a lady in tennis, about being a lady who handled problems in childbirth, about being a mom (her daughter, Olympic, turns 5 on Sept. 1, and Williams needs to have one other child).

She and Venus helped their sport attain a broader viewers and helped convey a broader slice of society into their sport (Coco Gauff, the 18-year-old African-American who was the runner-up on the French Open in Might, stated Tuesday she performs what she known as “a predominantly white sport” as a result of she “noticed anyone who regarded like me dominating the sport”).

“I don’t significantly like to consider my legacy. I get requested about it rather a lot, and I by no means know precisely what to say,” she wrote in an essay launched by Vogue journal. “However I’d wish to assume that because of alternatives afforded to me, ladies athletes really feel that they are often themselves on the courtroom. They’ll play with aggression and pump their fists. They are often sturdy but stunning. They’ll put on what they need and say what they need and kick butt and be pleased with all of it.”

There have been, to make sure, moments that she maybe was not as pleased with, confrontations with match officers that led to getting docked a degree or a sport in U.S. Open losses to Naomi Osaka and Kim Clijsters — perhaps the types of episodes she was referring to in her essay when she stated: “I’ve made plenty of errors in my profession. Errors are studying experiences, and I embrace these moments. I’m removed from excellent, however I’ve additionally taken plenty of criticism, and I’d wish to assume that I went via some laborious occasions as knowledgeable tennis participant in order that the subsequent era may have it simpler.”

Her serve was a present, as have been the highly effective groundstrokes that she and Venus — her opponent in 9 all-in-the-family Grand Slam finals — made a everlasting a part of the sport. So, too, was an unbending will and need to at all times come out on high, whether or not the particular person throughout the online was Huge Sis or anybody else, whether or not she was making an attempt to win a degree throughout a match or make a degree in an interview.

“I need to be nice. I need to be excellent,” Williams stated. “I do know excellent doesn’t exist, however no matter my excellent was, I by no means wished to cease till I bought it proper.”

In tennis, in fact, and past.

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis author since 2002. Write to him at hfendrich@ap.org or comply with him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich